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Fellowship Programme - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I am really keen on applying for the Fellowship as I want to use the funds to support the software I am developing, would this be a valid use of the Fellowship funds?

No. The Fellowship is to support travel, workshops, policy and other things not related to paying for your time to do you work i.e. it cannot be used as salary.

However if you have software which could be aided by a sustainability drive and potentially some additional development the the Institute's Open Call maybe for you.

Could tell me a bit about what you are looking for in terms of the person. Also, on your website, is there somewhere with your mission statement or goals?

You would do well to read more about the Institute and read the existing Fellow Profiles to understand who we are and what type of people make Institute Fellows. It might be also worth reading the blog, news, and conference intelligence sections with a specific focus on looking at the events Fellows have attended and/or organised.

If you are interested you can view the recording of the webinar for the previous Fellow 2018 programme and read about what it's like being a Fellow from both a Scientist and a Humanities Scholar. These resources will also be useful to better appreciate what is involved and how you and the Institute can benefit from your Fellowship.

What we want from Fellows is based on their career stage:

E.g. for those who are mid career (Lecturers, established RA’s or those with other Fellowships) as well as travel and reports we are looking for mid career people to be a champions of improved software practice in you community/institution (which ever is more relevant for you). They should be able to identify key software in their domain and perhaps help us determine whether we would help the software itself with a consultancy engagement (which may or may not involve a short burst of software engineering effort). Also to be involved in panels preparing policy (optionally). Ideally they will be an excellent science communicator and be passionate about their work and take an interest in the work of others and be able to talk about this. Any blogging/writing experience especially public engagement oriented will be viewed favourably. It goes without saying that they have a respectable research output (e.g. papers, workshops, software or other resources) or have made a difference with software they have developed or lead and are linked with at least one research network (e.g. of their own domain).

Would you consider someone recently retired who is much involved in on-going software development (is age, or retirement, a barrier to being considered for Fellowship)

If you are still intending to keep up your visibility in your community (i.e. your intention is not to simply focus on development without any of the dissemination), and you continue to have a link with your previous institution (e.g. an Honorary or Visiting Fellowship), then age or retirement does not prevent you from applying, or becoming, an Institute Fellow.

I work at an organisation/institution outside of the UK, would I be eligible for this fellowship if I applied using my honorary staff position at a UK based Research organisation?

You can apply. However you need to show clearly how you would bring benefit to the UK research community, and work towards the Institute's vision. Being based far away will make it harder to attend UK events.

I'm based outside of the UK but nearby geographically and don't have an honorary position at a UK institution; am I eligible to apply? I believe that I can demonstrate how my work would benefit the UK research community and the Software Sustainability Institute. Attending UK events wouldn't be a problem or significantly more costly than someone who was UK based.​

What you need to do in your application is show a demonstrable close working relationship with a UK University or UK based research Institute such that you are effectively a visiting researcher at a UK based research organisation (even if you are not formally). That would then suffice for eligibility.

Is there anything I cannot use the Fellowship for?

Once Fellows are selected and have been allocated their funds we are normally very open to their requests for travel or other activities as long as they aid the Fellow and the goals of the Institute in some way. So we tend to deal with requests on a case by case basis; one of the things which is not a valid expense is computing equipment (e.g. laptops and desktops) and would only fund specialist software licenses if there was a robust case made as to how this would aid the work of the Fellow and further the goals of the Institute.